Urea is generally produced from ammonia and carbon dioxide. It can be prepared by introducing an ammonia excess together with carbon dioxide at a pressure between 12 and 40 MPa and at a temperature between 150° C. and 250° C. into a urea synthesis zone. The resulting urea formation can be presented best in the form of two consecutive reaction steps, in the first step ammonium carbamate being formed according to the exothermic reaction:2NH3+CO2→H2N—CO—ONH4 after which the ammonium carbamate formed is dehydrated in the second step to give urea according to the endothermic equilibrium reaction:H2N—CO—ONH4H2N—CO—NH2+H2O
The extent to which these reactions take place depends among other things on the temperature and the ammonia excess used. The reaction product obtained in a urea synthesis solution substantially consists of urea, water, unbound ammonia and ammonium carbamate. The ammonium carbamate and the ammonia are removed from the solution and are generally returned to the urea synthesis zone.
In addition to the above-mentioned solution in the urea synthesis zone, a gas mixture is formed which consists of unconverted ammonia and carbon dioxide together with inert gases, the so called reactor off-gas. The urea synthesis section may comprise separate zones for the formation of ammonium carbamate and urea. These zones may also be combined in a single apparatus.
The background of this invention is a urea production plant comprising the following sections: (A) a synthesis and recirculation (recovery) section; said section being in fluid communication with an evaporation section (B), said evaporation section being in fluid communication with a finishing section (C); said finishing section (C) having a gas flow line to a dust scrubbing section (D); and wherein the evaporation section (B) further comprises a gas flow line to a condensation section (E). Said condensation section (E) being in fluid communication with a process condensate treatment section (F). A conventional set-up is shown in FIG. 1.
From the synthesis and recovery section (A), a solution (3) results, consisting mainly of urea and water, however contaminated with small residual amounts of ammonium carbamate and a small residue of excess ammonia. A typical composition of this solution (3) is 60-85% (wt) Urea, 0.1-2.5% (wt) of ammoniumcarbamate, 0.1-2.5% (wt) of ammonia.
In the evaporation section (B), said solution (3) is separated into a (liquid) concentrated urea melt (4) and a gaseous stream (11). Typically, the urea melt in this section is concentrated to a final moisture content of 0.2-5.0% by weight. The evaporation section is operated under vacuum conditions. It may comprise one or more evaporators in series. The small amount of residual ammonium carbamate present in the evaporation feedstream (3) will decompose into NH3 and CO2 in these evaporators. Under these vacuum conditions, this NH3 and CO2 subsequently mainly is transferred into the gaseous stream (11). Also the small amount of excess ammonia, present in the evaporation feedstream (3) is evaporated under this vacuum conditions and transferred to gas stream (11).
The finishing section (C) may be a prilling tower, or a granulation section. The granulation section may be a fluidized bed-granulation, or a drum granulation, or a pan-granulation, or any other similar and known granulation device. The main function of this finishing section is to transfer the urea melt (4) into a stream of solidified particles (5). These solidified particles, usually called ‘prills’ or ‘granules’ is the main product stream from the urea plant. In any event, to transfer the urea from the liquid phase into the solid phase, the heat of crystallization has to be removed. Moreover, usually some additional heat is removed from the solidified urea particles, in order to cool them to a temperature that is suitable for safe and comfortable storage and transport of this final product. The resulting total removal of heat in the finishing section is usually done in two ways: (i) by evaporation of water. This water enters the finishing section either as part of the urea melt, or is sprayed as liquid water at an appropriate place in the finishing process; (ii) by cooling with air. Usually most of the crystallization/cooling heat is removed by cooling with air. The cooling air is supplied to the finishing section via (6); by the nature of cooling air, it is heated up and leaves the finishing section via (7). Usually an amount of air equal to 3-30 kg of air per kg of final solidified product is applied.
In the finishing section (C), the air comes into direct contact with the urea melt and with the solidified urea particles. This inadvertently leads to some contamination of the air with some urea dust. Depending on the nature of the finishing section (prilling/granulation, type of granulation, conditions selected in granulation), the amount of dust present in the air may vary widely, values in the range of 0.05% to 10% (with respect to the final product flow) have been observed. This presence of dust in the air stream (7) usually makes a dust removal system (D) required, either for environmental or from economical considerations, before the air can be vented back into the atmosphere.
In the dust scrubbing section (D), dust scrubbing is usually done using a circulating urea solution as washing agent. On top of this also fresh water scrubbing usually is applied. The air entering via (7), by its nature of cooling air in finishing section (C), is hot. Therefore a considerable amount of water will evaporate in the dust scrubbing section D. This loss of water is made up by supply of fresh water via (10). The water used for this purpose (10) should be free of any volatile components (such as for instance NH3 and CO2), since any volatile components in the dust scrubbing section D would be transferred into the air, and thus result in contamination of the airflow (8) that is returned into the atmosphere. Such a contamination would be undesirable from an environmental point of view.
In the dust scrubbing section D a purge flow of urea solution (9) is obtained. This purge flow (9) usually has a concentration of 10-60% (by wt) of urea. In order to reprocess the urea present in this purge flow, the purge flow (9) is returned to the evaporation section (B), where it is further concentrated and then recycled to the finishing section (C). Cleaned air is vented from the dust scrubbing via (8) into the atmosphere.
The vapour stream (11) originating from the evaporation section (B), which is normally contaminated with low amounts of NH3 and CO2, is sent to a condensation section (E). Depending on the set up of the evaporation section this may be in the form of a single gas stream, or as multiple gas streams. In any case, the gas stream(s) 11 is/are condensed in section E using known vacuum condensation techniques, usually a combination of cooling water cooled shell and tube heat exchangers and steam driven vacuum ejectors. For these vacuum ejectors steam is required (stream S1). The condensed gas streams are removed as an aqueous solution (12) from the condensation section.
The aqueous solution (12) is lead to a process condensate treatment section (F). The aqueous solution (12) from the condensation section contains mainly water, however this water is contaminated with the NH3 and CO2 originating from gas stream (11). Also, in practice, the aqueous solution (12) contains some urea, as a result of entrainment of urea into the gas phase in evaporation section (B). Because of the presence of these contaminants, the water has to be treated for environmental and/or for economical reasons before the water can be purged from the process. Usually such a process condensate treatment section F contains a deep hydrolysis section, where any urea present is converted into NH3 and CO2 and a steam stripping section to remove NH3 and CO2 from the water. Both the deep hydrolysis, as well as the steam stripping operation requires valuable steam. This steam is indicated by (S2) in FIG. 1. In the art, there is a continuous desire to minimize the amount of steam required for this purpose. Also, there is a continuous desire to minimize the amount of water to be treated in this section (F), since a lower amount of water to be treated will minimize the dimensions of the equipment items required in this section, and thus minimize the required investment cost for this process condensate treatment section.
The NH3 and CO2 removed from the waste water is recycled to section A via line (13). This recycle stream (13) can be either in liquid or gas, but in any case usually contains some water too. The cleaned water leaves the process condensate treatment section via (14). This cleaned water may be a very good source of water to be applied in dust scrubbing section (D). In this case the amount of water produced in section (F) usually is more than the amount of water required in section (D), such that some purge flow (15) of purified water remains.